USS Wasp

Ten ships of the United States Navy have borne the name USS "Wasp", after the stinging insect.

* was a merchant schooner originally named "Scorpion" and purchased by the Continental Navy in late 1775. In the fall of 1777, the "Wasp" was run aground, set on fire, and destroyed when its gunpowder exploded.
* was a sloop constructed in 1806 and commissioned some time in 1807. This "Wasp" operated along the coast of the U.S. . Captured during the War of 1812, the "Wasp" served briefly in the Royal Navy as HMS "Peacock" and was lost off the Virginia Capes in 1813.
* was a schooner built in 1810. She was returned to her owners in November 1812. Rearmed and refitted, she was chartered to the U.S. Navy during the summer of 1813. She is presumed sold after 1814.
* was a sloop chartered on Lake Champlain in 1813. She was returned to her owners in early 1814.
* was a ship-rigged sloop-of-war constructed in 1813 and commissioned in early 1814. The "Wasp" was apparently lost in a storm at sea in late November 1814.
*, originally the captured Confederate iron-hulled sidewheel steamer CSS "Emma Henry", was renamed "Wasp" in June 1865. In 1876 she was found unfit for further service and sold.
*, was a steam yacht commissioned at New York on April 11, 1898. From the end of 1898 the "Wasp" was used as a training ship and recruiting tool. This "Wasp" was decommissioned and sold in 1919.
*, laid down in 1936, was an aircraft carrier that saw action in World War II in the Atlantic and Pacific, until sunk by enemy action in September 1942.
* took the place of the previous "Wasp" in 1943 and served until 1972.
* is an amphibious assault ship launched in 1989 and on active service as of 2008.

An eleventh vessel, USS|Wasp|SP-1159, a steel-hulled motorboat, was leased by the U.S. Navy and performed patrol duties in 1917, but was never entered into the Naval Vessel Register.